City flushing fancy potties

Well, you could’ve seen this one coming: The city of Seattle now wants to get rid of the five high-tech, self-cleaning public toilets installed to great fanfare back in 2004.

The handful of have cost taxpayers $4.3 million to operate.

A recently completed report found the unattended toilets have been well used — both as they were intended, and as a refuge for drug use and dealing, booze drinking and prostitution. Some homeless people now avoid the toilets because of the social problems they attract, the report found. Meanwhile, there’s been a steady increase in how much human waste crews clean each day in downtown alleys and walkways.

The report by Seattle Public Utilities also found the single-stall units required relatively large quantities of water, while offering a tiny fraction of the service available in some traditional public bathrooms. And, despite their automated cleaning functions, they are sometimes dirtier than traditional public bathrooms.

Incidentally, our story about the posh potties’ unveiling was accompanied by this memorable photo:

Paul Joseph Brown / P-I

Reporters, including KIRO radio’s Heather Bosch at right, record the sound of the first flush at the opening of Seattle’s first self-cleaning automatic public toilet, located in Pioneer Square’s Occidental Park.